Hurricane Audrey Made Landfall 54 Years Ago Today

Today is the Anniversary of Hurricane Audrey making landfall in Louisiana on this day in 1957. A lot of people lost there lives, property and there way of life.

On this day the anniversary of Hurricane Audrey, I thought i would share with you guys the history behind Audrey from how it formed to its strengthening to its landfall and aftermath.

Hurricane Audrey was the first major hurricane of the 1957 Atlantic hurricane season. Audrey was the only storm to reach Category 4 status in June. A powerful hurricane, Audrey caused catastrophic damage across eastern Texas and western Louisiana. It then affected the South Central United States as a powerful extratropical storm. The heaviest rainfall directly from Audrey fell near the Gulf coast, though heavy rainfall across the Midwest was caused by its moisture flowing towards a weather front to the north. In its wake, Audrey left $1 billion (2005 USD) in damage and 431 fatalities. At the time period, the devastation from Hurricane Audrey was the worst since the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

History Of Audrey

A tropical wave moved across the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea where it became a tropical depression on June 25. The depression stalled in the Gulf of Mexico where it showed signs of rapid intensification. At 1800 UTC, the tropical depression became Hurricane Audrey. The fledgling storm was centered 380 miles (612 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas. By June 26, the storm was already at Category 2 strength as it moved northeastward at 5 mph (8 km/h). Later, the storm’s forward motion increased to 15 mph (24 km/h) as Audrey continued its north-northeasterly track.[1] Hurricane Audrey then attained its peak maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and an estimated pressure of 946 millibars (27.9 inHg) before making landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border on June 27.[2] After landfall, Audrey quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it moved over inland Louisiana. Audrey then transformed into a powerful extratropical storm as it crossed over Tennessee. The extratropical remnants of Audrey then merged with another low over the Ohio Valley. The extratropical storm then reached a low barometric pressure of 974 millibars (28.8 inHg) as it moved across southeastern Canada and was unidentifiable by June 29. No one knows how strong the hurricane really was. Some of the Audrey victims told reporters that winds in Audrey were of Category 5 hurricane intensity. The wind gauge broke at 180 miles per hour (290 km/h) at KPLC weather station in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The victims had no warning of the hurricane. They were told the storm was going to make landfall in 4 days, but Audrey picked up speed, and the very powerful hurricane hit that night instead.

Impact

The name Audrey was soon retired and will never be used again to name a hurricane.[3] Because of this, it was the only use of the name Audrey for the Atlantic Basin.[4] Hurricane Audrey left $147 million (1957 USD) in damage and at least 416 fatalities in the US[5], most in eastern Texas and western Louisiana. Audrey is ranked as the sixth deadliest hurricane to hit the United States mainland since accurate record-keeping began in 1900.[2] No future hurricane caused as many fatalities in the United States until Katrina in 2005.

Records and strength

Audrey remains the earliest storm of any Atlantic hurricane season to reach Category 4 intensity in the recorded history of the basin. Audrey attained Category 4 strength on June 27. At the time, Audrey was the strongest storm to form prior to August. It held this record for nearly fifty years before Hurricane Dennis broke it in 2005 (which was itself broken only nine days later by Hurricane Emily which became a category 5). It remains the strongest storm ever to form in June. It was also the second of three major hurricanes to occur in the month of June (the last one before it being a Category 3 in 1945, and the next and final one would be Hurricane Alma in 1966).

The strength of Hurricane Audrey was disputed during its meteorological history. Several calculations suggested that the pressure in the storm dropped to 938 millibars (27.7 inHg) while other calculations put it at 940 millibars (28 inHg). In addition, the peak wind speed of Audrey varied from 140 mph to 150 mph (225–240 km/h). An oil rig offshore claims to have recorded a reading of 925 millibars and a wind speed of 180 mph (290 km/h), but this is disputed by authorities

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